Maybe comedies haven’t been doing quite as well in the last decade or so, compared to other times in history, but there’s always been a desire for movies that aren’t too serious. Or, perhaps alternatively, some blockbusters nowadays insert a ton of comedy even if the primary genre is, say, action, or there have been some critically acclaimed dramedies as of late (including a few fairly recent Best Picture winners, like Parasite, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Anora).
And funny action films are great and all, as are well-made dramedies, but what follows is a ranking of particularly great movies from the past half-century that are primarily comedies, emphasizing a few modern classics alongside some actual “classic” classics. Some of these films also have elements of other genres for sure, but they all share a desire to make audiences laugh more often than not. Also, humor can be subjective, so you might find yourself even angrier at this ranking than usual if you like to take rankings very seriously. But why get too serious about a comedy movie ranking? Think about it.
10
‘Army of Darkness’ (1992)
Directed by Sam Raimi
Evil Dead II ends with a pretty alarming twist that in turn sets up Army of Darkness to be very different from the two Evil Dead movies that came before it. Well, okay, Evil Dead II has a ton of goofy comedy balanced well alongside horror that feels a little less hard-hitting than the scary stuff in the first movie, but Army of Darkness goes all out towards slapstick comedy, in turn feeling pretty much entirely devoid of horror.
You could call it a dark fantasy movie, maybe, because there are still supernatural threats to fight, but the tone is goofy throughout, and the broad physical comedy paired with the constant one-liners makes it feel non-stop in having humor that pretty much always lands. It’s just extremely silly and continually funny, and Bruce Campbell gives a comedic performance for the ages, too.
9
‘Tropic Thunder’ (2008)
Directed by Ben Stiller
If you’re only half-watching Tropic Thunder, it might all seem offensive and shocking for the hell of it, but it’s more insightful than some might give it credit for. Also, as long as you’re more than half-watching, it’ll be clear that Hollywood and the people in it are the targets of basically all the jokes. Really, it’s pretty on-the-nose, so as long as you’re about 58% watching Tropic Thunder, you’ll be clued in.
It does this with an appropriately all-star cast, all of whom are having fun obliterating Oscar bait and parodying how seriously filmmakers and actors tend to take themselves. It’s the best film Ben Stiller has ever directed by a comfortable margin, and it contains career-best performances from the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise (the latter of whom is apparently game to make a sequel/spin-off at some point).
8
‘The Blues Brothers’ (1980)
Directed by John Landis
Of all the picks here, The Blues Brothers comes the closest to crossing the “has to primarily be a comedy” rule haphazardly enforced a little while back, since The Blues Brothers is also a musical, a crime film, and an action movie. But its focus feels like it’s on comedy, and even though there are lots of musical numbers and action scenes, some of those musical numbers and all the action scenes are played for laughs.
The Blues Brothers is just a masterfully absurd, unwieldy, and comedically chaotic film.
And the music that’s not supposed to be funny is genuinely reverent and celebratory of rhythm and blues music, and those parts are also as fun and energizing as all the comedic beats. The Blues Brothers is just a masterfully absurd, unwieldy, and comedically chaotic film, with nothing else out there being quite like it, and that’s okay, because it’s untouchable and continually rewatchable partly due to it being so wonderfully singular.
The Blues Brothers
- Release Date
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June 20, 1980
- Runtime
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133 minutes
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John Belushi
‘Joliet’ Jake Blues
7
‘Hundreds of Beavers’ (2022)
Directed by Mike Cheslik
Yes, it’s recent and still a little underrated, but Hundreds of Beavers is the kind of film that, once you’ve seen it, you will jump on any opportunity you can to talk about it. Like… oh, that’s what’s happening now. You’ve just walked into another “Please watch Hundreds of Beavers TED talk.” If you’ve seen it, feel free to stay and nod your head, and if you haven’t, just watch it.
That’s the TED talk. There is no TED talk. There is Hundreds of Beavers, which is a movie about a man stuck in a world defined by video game and silent cinema logic at the same time somehow, and he has to kill beavers. Hundreds of them. For reasons. Slapstick comedy, ridiculous action scenes, and too much visual creativity to comprehend in just one viewing ensue. It’s an all-timer, and the kind of film it’s hard to imagine many people disliking, even with lots of it being pretty damn weird.
6
‘Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan’ (2006)
Directed by Larry Charles
A movie with so many memorable lines it has the potential dishonor of being over-quoted, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was perhaps just too funny. It came out at the exact right time, annoyed various people, entertained plenty of others, and ended up being perhaps the greatest satirical movie of its decade.
Of course, the lines out of context are funny, but Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (yes, it’s best to use the full title because even the title is funny) is valuable as a critique of certain attitudes held by certain people at a certain time in history… or maybe still? Who’s to say. It is a revealing – and, some may say cruel – portrait of some parts of America, but what Sacha Baron Cohen was able to do and expose here, all without breaking character, is still astounding.
5
‘One Cut of the Dead’ (2017)
Directed by Shinichiro Ueda
There are no other zombie movies out there like One Cut of the Dead, but also, it’s never fair to say what makes it a unique zombie movie specifically; otherwise, that ruins everything. But what One Cut of the Dead is, more than a zombie film, is a comedy. It gets very funny, but it takes a while for it to reveal the joke, so to speak.
Actually, the whole movie feels like an expertly told feature-length joke. There’s a lengthy and somewhat confounding set-up, then a second act that starts to explain things, and then the final act feels like an extended punchline, with non-stop laughs. Also, if you go back and rewatch the whole movie, the first chunk of the film makes sense and is also far funnier than it was before. The entire thing is a trip worth taking; that’s the main takeaway here.
4
‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004)
Directed by Edgar Wright
Speaking of unique zombie movies, here’s Shaun of the Dead, which is a homage to – and parody of – classic zombie films for a while, though it does eventually turn into a genuinely good zombie movie. It’s an expert balancing act of a film, getting to do two seemingly contradictory things within the one runtime, and succeeding immensely in both regards.
That does raise the question, again, of whether this one can be counted as a pure comedy, but much more of it’s funny than horrific (though the tense parts are indeed tense). It’s just too jam-packed with gags and seriously well-timed set-ups and pay-offs to overlook in terms of what it does as a comedy, and Edgar Wright – alongside stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost – would pull off a similarly impressive tonal balancing act with the subsequent Cornetto trilogy films Hot Fuzz and (the more underrated) The World’s End.
3
‘Life of Brian’ (1979)
Directed by Terry Jones
As a piece of great satirical filmmaking, Life of Brian was perhaps unsurprisingly controversial, and still might be considered so in some circles. The film doesn’t go after all religions or religious people, though, instead opting to take aim at those who use religion as a way to control people, or otherwise make fun of those who might blindly or only half-heartedly pursue a belief in something.
You can be religious and still enjoy it, and maybe some will find it even funnier as a result. It’s provocative and bold, but still has a good deal to say about certain (not all) aspects of religion and human nature more broadly. Monty Python and the Holy Grail might be more quotable, but Life of Brian is the overall stronger film, in terms of having a direct point, message, and narrative. Also, it’s plenty silly if you just want absurdity.
2
‘The Big Lebowski’ (1998)
Directed by the Coen brothers
The Big Lebowski is, quite comfortably, the funniest movie the Coen brothers have ever directed, and it’s also a contender for the title of their best film regardless of genre. It’s, to put it simply, a parody of film noir conventions, or maybe definable as a neo-noir if a handful of not very smart people were thrown into the middle of it, so a situation already primed to go bad goes much worse.
There’s chaos, absurdity, quotable dialogue, and too many memorable sequences and performances to count crammed into this one. It’s hard to fully grasp the sense of humor on offer here at first, but The Big Lebowski is one of the most rewarding movies to rewatch, because all of it clicks. Some might love it straight away, sure, but if you’re not so hot on it after one watch, it’s worth returning to at some point. Also, any attempts to really dig into why it’s very funny would just undermine its very funniness.
1
‘The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!’ (1988)
Directed by David Zucker
If you want to see what a perfect parody movie looks like, then look no further than 1988’s The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! This one is now close to four decades on, so it certainly qualifies for classic status, but it’s still just timelessly funny. All the visual gags, plays on words, wild bits of narration, and general absurdity on offer here… it’s all amazing.
Everyone in the movie is funny, but Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin gives one of the greatest comedic performances of all time; one that puts him up there with the likes of silent cinema legends like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Everything he says and does is funny, and he’s working with a pitch-perfect script that doesn’t waste a second when it comes to setting up jokes. It is a pure comedy, it never misses, and the jokes here are the kind that’ll make you laugh, rather than chuckle or politely blow air from your nose. The first Naked Gun really is that good, and is potentially good enough to be the best pure comedy of the past 50 years.